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I wonder if he told Webb that last year?
or Chase, this year?
is Marv still employed by KTM?
RV always ran factory or aftermarket triple clamps, so someone was testing them.
Same. I’ve been racing for 30+ years at a pretty solid level and I’ve never once considered buying triple clamps.
I’d say he tested (the strength of) his clamps when he finally had enough of JLaw’s BS…
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Agreed. I bought some one year (not for performance, just looks). Despite me being a pretty picky rider with setup, the offset being different, and them being billet vs stock cast, if you had me do a blind test there’s no way I’d tell you anything changed, good or bad.
YMMV.
If DV says most people and refers to them as "us," that's good enough for me!
I did run aftermarket triples on several YZs back in the day, but it was mostly to relocate the bars farther forward. It was to accomodate my chimpanzee arms that are about 6 inches longer than most people's.
(Well, maybe one full inch.) Now that the stock units are coming with adjustable clamps, I'm all good.
It’s interesting to find out RV never tested any triple clamps but Weimer wanted to because he said the Kawi has steering issues.
I think RV was just that good! He adapted to the bike.
I want the dirt on this. Someone on here actually races?
I’m way too old for any of this modern triple clamp talk…. But I do have 2 triple clamp stories.
First, I picked up a Honda support ride in 1979 on the infamous 23” Elsinore. While the 23 was weird, what I disliked the most was the incredibly poor choice of tires (I wanted a Metzeler). Mid year I convinced them to let me run a 21” front. After a few weeks of running excess sag for balance, they said they had some triple clamps that corrected the rake. But they also changed the trail. Still was a weird bike to ride.
The other was in 1981 when R&D Racing was the factory support for Team Suzuki, I was in the shop and saw like 8 sets of triple clamps on the wall and when I asked, Rudy said they were all tuning options for Mark Barnett’s works bike…
Aftermarket triple clamps, for my use case on KTMs, is largely due to the sub-par (my opinion) design of the KTM steering head. Take a look at how the KTM is designed - everything is held together by that little pinch bolt on the top of the steering stem. A big "no thank you" for me on that - I'll go with the Japanese design you can get on aftermarket clamps every day of the week.
Is PC running the same clamps that RV ran when he rode for them?
And now he is going back to 'fix things'.
Actually, that single pinch bolt is not responsible for holding everything together (you've got the top and bottom clamps secured to the fork legs afterall). I do agree that the KTM design has some limitations. If you want to be like Jett Lawrence and crank down on your steering head bearings, it's a lot easier to do with the round spanner nut utilized by most Japanese brands.
Having run 6 different clamp options back in the day on a single bike for Supermoto, i can tell you the difference on tarmac is huge, whether it be offset, angle, or stiffness, you can feel instantly and see on the clock what works and what doesnt. Thats a lot harder to do on dirt, because the lack of consistency in the track.
But just offset, we had adjustable offset at 20/17 , then went to 17/14, and finally we had a set of 14/11 done. Each set was better than the last, but even the set that was 17/14 set at 14 , was different to the set at 14/11 set at 14. When we put top guys on the bike, to see what they thought, all of them said ' you cant fall off it' due to the level of front end grip on turn in and mid corner stability.
In MX you cant use those numbers, but it all makes a difference.
But , and this is the thing that JT$ said, we set the bike up 100% for the Tarmac, because that is where the lap time comes from, in the off road , you are just trying not to die , and you have to deal with it.
Every half second you improve the bike in the dirt, you lose a second on the black stuff.
In MX you cant have a bike that turns the best without that having a down side elsewhere . Pick the thing you cant live without and fix that, the rest is what it is.
You can’t tell me he didn’t try and did use different PC Clamps when he rode for pro circuit 🤦🏽♂️
Matt Lemoine has a podcast interview with RV if any of you are interested.
Pit Row
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